Bill Sowers, the State Library’s Kansas Documents and Cataloging Librarian, will be running a new column in the newsletter focused on online resources and cataloging resources from outside the library.
CATALOGING INTERNET RESOURCES
What do you think of when your local library catalog comes to mind? Is it a listing only of material held by your library within your library building? Have you considered adding records to your catalog that link your users to resources available through the Internet such as Kansas Audiobooks, Music and More? Have you ever wondered what else might be out there — library collections available to the public with resources in science, literature, history, astronomy?
There are some great, freely accessible digital collections on the Internet. Many of the titles within these collections also have MARC records that you load into your catalog. Online books, music, audio-visuals and journals can augment your local collection providing resources that you wouldn’t normally be able to fit into your budget or your building.
When considering the addition of Internet resources to your online catalog, it’s important to take into account the following:
–Is your local catalog software set up to allow linking to outside locations on the Internet? An Internet resource cataloging record in MARC format has an 856 MARC field with a live link to a site on the Internet. Your local online catalog has to be set up to allow your patrons to click on this link and be taken to a webpage somewhere else on the Internet.
–Are all the web items that you wish to add to your catalog accessible to your library patrons? Can they be freely accessed via the Internet or can they only be accessed inhouse at your library’s ISP? Will they require a library card number or password to view on a remote site? If access is limited you’ll want to include notes within your catalog records indicating this.
–Does your catalog software include a URL checker? A URL checker goes through an online catalog, verifies active links and kicks back a list of bad or redirected links to you in a list. Within a world of constantly changing URLs, a URL checker system keeps your catalog’s online collection up-to-date.
–Is the Internet collection you’re considering cataloging part of a stable, viable website which will be online for years to come? Cataloging, even copy cataloging, takes time and money so you want to add quality titles to your catalog. Check on the group(s) which sponsor(s) the website which hosts the collection. What was their intent in providing this collection? Have they altered original material in any way? Read reviews (if available) on the website. Librarians have striven to provide well-balanced book collections for years and the same should prove true in providing access to Internet resources.
–Can you find good cataloging records for the Internet items you wish to enter into your catalog? Some Kansas libraries enter a lot of Internet resource cataloging records into the Kansas Library Catalog (KLC). You should be able to download these records via Z39.50.
INTERNET ARCHIVE GENEALOGY PUBLICATIONS
Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library. Hundreds of thousands of books, manuscripts, audios, motion pictures and music files have been placed in the Internet Archive during the past 13 years. Within the past year, cataloging records have been created on OCLC for over 140,000 titles within the Archive as well.
Titles within the Internet Archives are usually free to public access, though it’s good to check! With over one hundred thousand clean MARC records on OCLC, the collection is a great candidate for enhancing a library’s collection in literature, history, the arts and other subject areas.
One prime candidate for inclusion in a library catalog are the hundreds of digitized genealogy books available in the Internet Archive. Currently, there are about 900 of these titles in the Kansas Library Catalog. You can find them by doing the following search in the KLC:
Using “Keyword Search” do an “All Headings” search for the following:
san francisco internet archive family
Most all of the 990 records that come up are family history books available online via the Internet Archive. Titles can be selected and downloaded, adding a sizable collection to any library. Contact Jeff Hixon (jeffh@kslib.info) or Rhonda Machlan (rmachlan@kslib.info) at the State Library to ask about the Z39.50 .
Bill Sowers (ksdocs@kslib.info)